WHILE some Jamaicans cherish the tradition of owning a family plot — a sacred space where they and their loved ones can rest in peace — if the land is to be sold, the burial site could devalue the property and complicate the transaction.

Attorney Gabrielle Gilpin-Hudson, who is also the president of the Realtors Association of Jamaica, said if a grave is found on the premises during the valuation exercise — which is when the land is inspected and the findings documented to facilitate the sale — it typically impacts the final price of the land.

“Sometimes it’s a cultural thing. For some people, it’s kind of like a mental thing why they don’t like it or it may make the property less desirable, but other times it can be an economic issue. For example, if you’re trying to buy the property to do a development and you’re gonna have difficulty using it for that purpose because this grave is there, it can impact the value of the property for sure,” she explained.

“It depends on your situation. It is definitely something to think about and to get the right advice on so that you can plan,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Gilpin-Hudson noted that while it is not impossible to sell land with a family plot or graves on it, it does complicate the process, with additional costs to remove the remains and negotiations on who will bear that cost.

“If the land is for a good price, the buyer might take on the exhumation or the seller might choose to exhume the bodies because they do not want to move on the price they want to sell the land for,” she said.

She added that the process to remove the remains is also time-consuming, because it requires steps taken through the municipal corporation of the parish where the grave is located for approval to be granted.

“If you are interested in putting a family plot on your private property, consider what your long-term plans for that property are. If it is that you’re planning to sell it one day, or you think that maybe if you leave it to your kids, they’re going to sell it one day, you might want to consider that it could add some inconvenience, difficulty, and complexity to the sale,” she said.

While the process might be tedious, Gilpin-Hudson urged sellers to always declare if a grave is on the property.

“It is not something that is a written rule somewhere per se, it’s more developed in common law, but you’re supposed to disclose material facts relating to the property. Definitely…if you know about it and somebody asks you if there are graves there and you say ‘no’ and you lie, that is a very big misrepresentation and that could be considered almost fraudulent,” she warned.

“If it is innocent, where you didn’t know they were there and they find out after that situation, it is not as bad in terms of not failing to disclose it, but certainly you’re supposed to disclose things that will materially affect the transaction, especially when persons are buying it for a particular purpose and that purpose might be frustrated or not possible because there are graves there,” she explained.

Instead of hiding the presence of graves, she said property owners can address this and other issues before selling the property so that the transaction process is not affected in any way.

Her warning comes amid confirmation from four funeral home directors who offer exhumation services, and who say it is most popular among family members seeking to sell land that houses the remains of their ancestors. The remains are either reburied at another location or cremated.

In the meantime, Gilpin-Hudson also urged property owners to ensure that they have documentation stating that the graves were legally placed on the property.

“I had a client that was looking at a piece of property. We actually ended up deciding not to buy it because there was a grave on there, and what happened in that situation was, he wasn’t even sure if the grave was on there legally,” she shared.

“If you’re going to be selling, you want to make sure that if you went through a certain process to have the grave there legally, that you have evidence that it’s there legally so that the purchaser can feel better that it’s not potentially an illegal grave, which is important,” she explained.

Gilpin-Hudson also advised buyers to do their homework on a property before they seek to make a purchase or seek the expert advice of realtors.

“Similar to like when people buy somewhere or have somewhere for sale that has a breach on the covenant, so they overbuild on the land and they go over the boundary and things like that, you always want to check these things before you buy because it can impact the value of the property, and whether or not your title is a good title, because the title could be breached when you buy or when you sell,” she warned.

She further noted that if a property has graves, and a buyer decides to go through with the process using a mortgage, they must make the necessary checks with the bank of their choice.

“It is something that can impact your transaction, especially when it comes to getting mortgage financing, because a lot of banks don’t like the idea of giving you a loan when it shows that there is a grave on the property,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“What would happen is usually, when they do the surveyor ID report, the surveyor would pick up the locations of the plots and have to put that on the report, and so some banks don’t like that because they are using the property to secure their mortgage, and so the value of the property to them may be impacted by you having a grave on the property,” she explained.

“If you are ever not able to pay your mortgage and they need to take action, they want to make sure that your property can cover the mortgage as security, and so if the value is impacted, then that might not make it a good security for a loan, so that’s why some banks don’t like it,” she added.

GILPIN-HUDSON… if you are interested in putting a family plot on your private property, consider your long-term plans for that property